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Book ii ^/- -^^ V . 



CENTENNIAL 



MEMORIAL SERVICES 



-OF- 



OLD ALNA nEETING=H0U5E 
Alna, Maine, 



SEPTEMBER 11, 1889. 



BY RUFUS KING SEWALL. 



WISCASSET : 

Emeuson, Steam rRiNTKi; 

1896. 



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CENTENNIAL MEMORIAL SERVICES 



Old Meeting-House, Alna, Maine, 
September ii A. D. 1889. 

This house had been standing a century's measure of years. By 
the munificence of individuals, at home and abroad and of the town, it 
had been repaired and painted in a substantial manner, preserving its 
original form and features in and out of its antique original. 

The big beams supporting galleries, quaint square pews, high 
pulpit with sounding board, and deacons' seat, and in all antique origi- 
nal finish, had been carefully re-produced at a cost of eight hundred 
and sixty-one dollars and a half. 

The day of celebration dawned auspiciously. Multitudes from the 
hill-tops and valleys of the Sheepscot in Alna and adjacent towns, and 
from cities in Maine, filled the old meeting-house. 

The old stage coach, the farm wagon and the dashing barouche, 
piled in their contributions of living and interested comers, from near 
and from far, till the crowded aisles and seats were oppressively filled. 
The arrangements of the committee led by B. VV. Donnell, Esq., for 
accommodation and successful execution, were admirably carried out. 

The VViscasset choir aided from other places crowded the ancient 
singing gallery, and filled the old meeting-house with praise in a volume 
of song to the tunes of a century ago, which waked the echoes of the 
dead past, with life and joy of its youthful days. 



4 CENTENNIAL MEMORIAL SERVICES 

The services opened with an invocation by Rev. T. R. Pentecost 
of Sheepscot. 

The great assembly joined in singing, "Praise God, from whom all 
blessings flow." 

Rev. C. C. Cone of Bowdoinham led in prayer. 

Rev. F. V. Norcross of Union, Me., preached from Haggai 2, 9 : 
"The glory of this lafter house shall be greater than the former, saith 
the Lord of Hosts." It was eloquent and appropriate ; and listened to 
with absorbing attention, as it was full of deep Godly sentiment and 
old-time God-honoring fervor and evangelical truth of Puritan relish. 

Scripture readings out of the original pulpit Bible by Rev. W, H. 
Crawford of Wiscasset covering the 8th chapter of Kings ; 2nd chap- 
ter of Haggai, and the 122nd Psalm, — prepared the way for the follow- 
ing poem, by Charles H. Dennison, Esq., of Wiscasset. 



POEM 

No gallant conquering host my strain inspires, 
Which comes resistless bearing war's dread fires ; 
No sounding trump that speaks alone of fame. 
No great heroic deeds do I proclaim : — 
My modest verse is of those noble men. 
Whose silent march filled every fertile glen, 
And scattered wide and far the golden grain 
Upon the hills and valleys fair of Maine. 

I sing the virtues of the Pioneers, 

Their trials, conquests, labors, doubts and fears ; 

They founded on this rude Atlantic shore 

A model church, whose stainless standard bore 

God's signet blazoned on its ample fold 

And made men free ; — a greater gift than gold ! 

"In hoc signo vinces," by this sacred sign 

"We in His vineyard plant this fruitful vine." 

No sooner said than done they raised this roof. 



OLD ALNA MEETIN(;-HOUSE. 

Enduring signal of their faith the proof, 
To them the Ark of God, His mercy-seat, 
And laid this offering at their Saviour's feet. 

An hundred years have gone since those men came 
To this lone spot, and raised God's Oriflamme. 
They mustered here with souls in free accord 
To testify the goodness of their Lord ; 
To worship Him in freedom, not in fear. 
And braved the savage tenants roaming here. 
Upon these rugged hills, then thickly clad 
With towering pines, they raised their voices glad ; 
From man to man the whispered word went round 
To fix this banner on this storied ground. 
To firmly stand by God's great Magna Charta, 
And die for it, or for its truth a Martyr. 
Should Tyrants follow, here they stood to die ; 
No further would they go, no further fly ! 

Enraged, so stands the noble stag at bay : 
Let him beware, expecting easy prey. 

So on the mountain peak the flakes of snow 
In silence gathering threat the vales below ; 
And when the groaning cliff succumbs to weight, ' 
Who guides the avalanche can rule the State. 
I see them now, those sturdy men of yore, 
Each Sabbath issuing from the farm-house door, 
The saddled steeds impatient at the gate. 
To take the road and bear their precious freight. 
The aged grandsire leads the smihng flock ; 
Their faith in him is steadfast as a rock. 
And his in God is likened to a shield, 
A strong defence on any battle-field ; 
He leads them now through devious paths along, 
And in the service leads them in the song, — 
No rosined violin, no grumbling viol bass 
Disturbs the sweet harmonics of the place ; 
But softened tones from each melodious throat, 



CENTENNIAL MEMORIAL SERVICES 

The deacon's voice raised to its highest note, 
The prompters line by line the hymns repeat, 
And each uneasy urchin keeps his seat. 
The tithing-man, majestic, stern but bland, 
Is in his place convenient to command ; 
E'en his raised finger takes away the breath 
Of any youngster, while his threat is death. 

"Eighteenthly" comes, and now the parson ends. 
And through the house the tension strong unbends ; 
The stillness deep, that for a time prevailed 
Was broken, and some weaker children wailed. 
Aunt Eunice thought the sermon short enough, 
And emphasized it by a pinch of snuff, 
Arranged her glasses then to join in song. 
And add more volume to the choral throng. 
With heads low-bowed, the benediction given, 
The reverent had a sweet foretaste of heaven. 

And now in groups they sought the open air. 
Discussed the weather; "would the crop be fair?" 
Or did they think the storm that seemed a brewin' 
Would join the frost and both complete its ruin? 
"When will your annual apple bee come off?" 
To Deacon West said charming Nellie Hoff ; 
And quickly, ere the Deacon's answer came. 
Said blushing Willie Dole, "I ask the same." 
Inquiries of the feeble and the sick, 
Advice to youngsters how to build a rick, 
Or how to drive a double-team a-field, 
And how good tillage would increase the yield, — 

These topics were to them of import great, 
And not despised by makers of the State. 
Their temporal wants, the duties of the day, 
Their aspiration for the heavenly way. 
Went side by side among those godly people. 
Whose churches had no bell, nor towering steeple ;- 
A'useful "sounding-bell," to save his voice, 



OLD ALNA MEETING-HOUSE. 

Was hung above the parson's head of choice ; 

All other belles demurely sat in pews, 

With ears to list, not tongues to tell the news. 

The daily trials of their frontier life, 
Like Christian warfare were a constant strife ; 
The plow that upturned sods of richest land 
Was guarded by a strong and well-armed hand ; 
"Thrice armed is he who hath his quarrel just," 
Armed better he, who hath a shot the first ; 
In conflicts fierce they kept with wise foresight 
Their powder dry ; an(j barred their doors at night. 

Their spiritual wants were always well supplied 
By one whose hand and heart were opened wide ; 
The Bible tale of friendship from the heart 
Had in this early church its counterpart ; 
For every member loved their pastor Ward, 
And knew he lived in favor with the Lord. 
He smoothed the pathway of the dying saint. 
Was never weary, in goodness did not faint ; 
When others faltered, he would firmer stand 
For God and right, and for his native land ; 
Was with those heroes brave at Bunker Hill, 
Read Paley's work, and "Edwards on the W^ill," 
And led his fiock in heavenly pastures green. 
Joined faith with works so both were not unseen ; 
For twenty years in thie rough wine-press trod. 
His primal thought the glory of his God. 

And with him worked a corps of faithful men, 
Their acts above the efforts of my pen ; 
Some names are known, I give a few with zest, 
All deacons : Donnell, Pearson, Dole and West. 
They helped their pastor comfoit doubting souls, 
As now appears by your historic rolls ; 
They lived by faith, and walked within its light, 
Along the pathway with their goal in sight. 



CENTENNIAL MEMORIAL SERVICES 

All honor to those Christian soldiers bold, 

For gathering here Christ's sheep within this fold ; 

They practiced what they preached, that love to man 

Was greater part and portion of God's plan : 

The rule they thought the only one, — to do 

To others as you'd have them do to you. 

And thus they lived, and worked, and passed away. 
As stars before the advent of the day. 
Whose stellate light is hid as He draws nigh 
Who fixed there distant splendor in the sky. 



OLD ALNA MEETINC;-HOUSE. II 

Rufus K. Sewall, Esq., of Wiscasset followed with an historical 
sketch. 

MEMORIAL ADDRESS. 

Christian Citizens : — 

An hundred )^ears ! What an epitome of human experiences, 
stored with fruition of hopes and fears, life's beginnings and endings, 
joys and sorrows, weal and woe ! 

like the ghost of Samuel in the enchantment of the witch of 
Endor, more than three generations rise in centennial shrouds within 
these ancient walls before us ! Forms invisible crowd this scene whose 
bodies have filled these seats ; whose voices here have been tuned to 
praise, and whose souls, along these ancient aisles, have been led up to 
the gate of heaven ! We cannot dally with the inspiration of the place 
and of this occasion. 

We turn back to the facts and record out of which this ancient 
house of God arose. Technically it is a " Mee/iiigHoiise.'^ This was 
its ancient name. The name tinges the structure with Puritanical 
Congregationalism. It was designed to be the God-Meeting place of 
the fathers ; — the Shilo of the sons and daughters of this Precinct of old 
Pownalboro ; and a visible pledge of their loyalty to God as well as to 
the calls of conscience and duty in their day and generation. 

It is human to obey instinctive impulse. Therefore, it is natural to 
recognize the existence and duty of worship of God. The natural se- 
quence is a place for Divine intercourse in prayer and praise, and to 
listen to the word of God. 

These instincts have had varied development, according to the light 
and knowledge of man, and the ages and places of his action as a 
religious being. 

The Puritan idea was, that of a God-Meeiing place ; and the sole 
conditions thereof, were practicability and simplicity, in form, time 
and place. This house, therefore, in its original design, was the place 
of God- mee ting \.o \.\\q fathers of Alna. 

It is sacred : and could we see what Moses saw, when he met 
God in the burning bush, the cry from all these seats would be, — 
*•■ how dreadful is this place ! " 

The poor Indian "sees God in clouds and hears Him in the 
wind." Civilization with its clearer and more losrical and intellisrent 



12 CENTENNIAL MEMORIAL SERVICES 

observation, localizes the Divine presence and intercourse. It has 
"places of prayer." The features of this localization, here, and in New 
England, we propose to trace in material development. 

PLACES OF WORSHIP. 
A. D. 1604. 

Two hundred and eighty-five years ago, in the north-east corner 
of Maine, on an island half a league in circuit. Frenchmen landed to 
make a home. The island was rolled into a mound on its sea-ward 
front, and made a natural breastwork, and was mounted with cannon. 
A fort was erected on the north end. Beyond, barracks for soldiers 
and other little houses were reared, and the intervening space filled in 
with gardens. Near the battery ?i place* for public worship 7vas also 
built, and in Indian fashion, — "« wigivamy It was called the "chapel." 
This, I think, was the earliest structure in New England for public 
worship of God. 

A. D. 1607. 

At the mouth of the Kennebec River, on a peninsula, west shore, 
called by the Indians "Sa-bi-no, " one hundred and twenty English- 
men landed in August of that year ; organized a town, as the nucleus 
of a "great state ;" nominated a chief magistrate and called him Pres- 
ident, who was then and there inducted to ofifice by oath and solemn 
religious services, to govern the Embryo State. It was Lord Popham's 
Colony of English Emigrants. Before the close of December of that 
year, there was finished an entrenched fjrt, fortified with twelve 
mounted cannon ; and within its lines, fifty houses were built, besides 
a store house and a place for public prayers, which the Englishmen 
called a "church." This church was an ordinary structure of wood, 
English fashion, widi a tall steeplef in the west end. Nahanada of 
Pemaquid, his wife and other notable savages went to meeting there 
morning and evening, attending with marked reverence and silence. 
A ship-yard was opened and a thirty ton vessel built and launched 
from it. These Englishmen had the means to cut plauk and boards ; 
and the structure of their place of public prayer was, not necessarily, 
a log cabin, — and is nj doubt, the earliest framed building for a place 
for public worship in New England and of old English style. 

The next form we have is in the Pilgrim Advent of 1620, at 
Plymouth. 



*I.L's Cai-hot. ^ Hunt's Spanish sketch of iboS. 



OLD ALNA MEETING-HOUSE. 1 3 

PILGRIM MEETING-HOUSE. 

In their peril and straitness, 1622, at Plymouth, a fort of good 
timber, strong and comely, good for defense, was built on the hill 
overlooking the Pilgrim hamlet. It was made with a flat roof and 
battlements, mounted with cannon ; fitted also for a place of public 
worship, esteemed a great work, and called a " Meeting House." 
The meeting house had further and fuller development in Puritan 
ideas of church architecture in the colonization and settlement of Cape 
Ann, Salem and Shawmut neck, 1624 and 1629. 

After this date a separate edifice for public worship of God and 
use for religious services, called the "meeting house," became a 
feature of every considerable New England community ; a structure in 
its architectural make up like a barn, — and internally arranged with 
seats, pulpit, stair ways, and, in Massachusetts, with a chimney. 
Hence, in 1662, in Salem it was ordered "that there be a bier for 
carrying corpses to the grave ; and that the chimney of the ' meeting 
house' be the place for it to stand* in; " and in 1663, galleries are 
mentioned in the furniture of the meeting-house. The idea of pulpit 
as the place for the exposition of religious truth, I have no doubt, was 
borrowed from the record of Ezra's public reading and translation of 
the sacred scriptures in the age of Cyrus, and that it is not a Puritan 
novelty. The Puritan notions and policy, as held in Massachusetts 
Bay, had now become the dominant policy in New England Towns. 
The Pilgrim complex notion of a fort and chapel had passed with the 
necessities of the day, and the English steepled place of public prayer 
and reading the scriptures, soon superceded the common, barn-like 
structure. 

Turning back to the incidents which led to the erection of this 
Puritanic relic of church service, at the " fords and mills " of the 
upper tide-waters of the Sheepscot, now Alna, we find, that in the 
spring of 1621, the Pilgrims of Plymouth had lost half their number by 
want and disease. Disease, want, and terror of savage surroundings, 
had so demoralized the survivors that despair pervaded the settlement. 
In the extremes of their distress and calamity, but six or seven could 
be found able to help the sick and impotent. In this emergency, 
suddenly the cry was heard in broken English, in the lanes of Pl\mouth, 
^'Much welcome Eni{lishmen ! Much welcome Englishmen I " 



14 CENTENNIAL MEMORIAL SERVICES _ 

A tall Straight man, hair on his head black, long behind, straight 
before, and none on his face at all ; with a leathern girdle about his 
loins, and a fringe a span long or more, with a bow and two arrows in 
his hand, the one headed and the other not, boldly walked by the 
cabin doors of the hamlet, uttering these words of good cheer. The 
effect was most salutary. It was Sa-mas-set (Samosset c>f Pilgrim his- 
tory) the savage Lord of Peniaquid. His coming and presence in 
this emergency, among the sick and dying Pilgrims, it is said, was as 
the vision of an angel. He told the Pilgrims all about the "Eastern 
parts" whence he came and where he lived. This seems to have been 
the first definite knowledge Plymouth had of Maine ; and it related to 
Monhegan, Pemaquid and the notable Sagadahoc, afterward called 
" Eastern Parts " by the Pilgrims. 

Among the struggling scattered specks of civilization, dotting the 
skirts of the green primeval forests of North America, says Chas. Fran- 
cis Adams, however the little colony of Plymouth was not the least in 
1622. The smiling month of May had come laden with its freshness 
and bloom of renovated nature. The Pilgrims had lived some sixteen 
or seventeen months on "Plymouth Rock" and struggled through a 
second winter and had become reduced in number and supplies. The 
hamlet was sorely distressed. Entirely destitute of bread, they had 
lived on clams and other shell fish until all were greatly debilitated. 

When planting was finished, their victuals were spent ; and at 
night they did not know where to have a bit in the morning, having 
neither bread or corn for three or four months together. It was an 
emergency of starvation. 

A SURPRISE. 

Suddenly a boat was seen crossing the mouth of the Bay, and to 
disappear behind the head-lands. A signal gun was fired. The boat 
altered her course and headed into the Bay. This boat was a tender 
of the "Ship Sparrow" from the Pemaquid dependency of "Damaris- 
cove" in Maine. Seven men composed her crew; and a letter from 
Maine was her cargo. 

This waif from the " eastern parts, " brought news where bread 
could be found. 

* Pulpit of the Revolution. 



OLD ALNA MEEIING-HOUSE. I5 

The Sparrow's boat's crew piloted the way, and Governor Brad- 
ford manned the Plymouth Shallop and cleared for the "eastern parts" to 
buy bread. She safely reached the shores of Samasset's home, where 
thirty ships were harboring for freight to England. The repre- 
sentatives of the hungry Pilgrims were kindly received, and a Shallop 
load of bread furnished, without money and without price, which was a 
very seasonable blessing and supply, to the famished Pilgrims, who, by 
this incident, learned the resources of, and the way to the corn-fields 
and beaver haunts and fishing grounds of Maine. The fact was 
utilized at once. The knowledge thus gained was improved by the 
Pilgrims, in securing possession, east and west of Pemaquid, of the 
river banks, at their mouths, for trade. Good crops of corn thereafter 
grown and harvested at Plymouth, the Pilgrims sent their Shallop 
loaded, into the Kennebec. The success of the voyage was a cargo of 
beaver pelts. This proved an opening, to Plymouth acquisition of 
land title, on both shores of the Kennebec, "fifteen miles wide," by 
purchase of the Indians, January 13, 1629. 

The proprietors of this purchase, with untiring zeal and great sa- 
gacity, stimulated settlement of their lands, and with so much success, — 
as to colonize a new town, and secure its incorporation Feb. 13, 1760, 
by the name of Pownalboro, with some one hiuidred and fifteen fami- 
Hes, broken into three precincts for religious uses, viz. : West, north 
and east. East was Wiscasset Point. 

The north precinct had industrial water privileges, where were 
fording places and mill-sites on the Sheepscot, near Head of the Tide. 

CIVIL ABSORPTION. 

In the meantime the commonwealth of Massachusetts had ab- 
sorbed the Pilgrim territory, and also the ancient " eastern parts," and 
converted them into the " District of Maine ; " and imposed its Puritan 
theories of the fundamental law of its civil polity, — theories, rooted iii 
theocrasy, — modified by the Roman idea of ^^vox populi esi vox Dei,'' 
— so far as it concerned church relations and services. 

Its declaration of principles as a code of law, was : — " the right as 
well as the duty of all men in society, publicly and at stated seasons " 
to worship God ; that as the happiness of the people and the good 
order and preservation of civil government essentially depends upon 
piety, religion and morality ; and as these cannot be generally diffused 



I 6 CENTENNIAL MEMORIAL SERVICES 

through a community, but by the institution of the pubhc worship of 
Ciod, and of public instruction in piety and rehgion and morahty : 

'•Therefore, the people of the commonwealth have a right to in- 
\est their Legislature with power to authorize and require towns and 
precincts, and other bodies politic to make suitable provision at their 
own expense for the institution of the public worship* of God." 

These legal postulates broke Pownalboro into parishes ; a)id, in 
I 794, into the municipalities of Dresden and New Millford. At the 
site of the milling industries of old Pownalboro, an industrious and en- 
terprising population had become resident near the falls and shoals or 
fords of the Sheepscot, before ''New Millford " was incorporated ; and 
as a Precinct the forces of Puritan religion and law had taken effect ; an 
in 1788 secured a site ; and prior to 1790 erected a "meeting house, " 
by force of a Pownalboro tax, under constitutional laws ; and this 
structure is that House, — an outgrowth of Massachusetts church archi- 
tecture, as well as in the form suited to social and public worship of 
(iod. 

The Wiscasset Point precinct of Pownalboro, before this, had a 
house of worship ; and as early as A. D. 1771. In structure it was like 
this originally ; but in 1792, the old barn-like edifice had its northern 
porch streached into a lofty spire, in which was hung a bell cast by 
"Paul Revere" of Boston, expense of which was met from the pro- 
ceeds of the old Deacon seats converted into pews. (*) Note. 

Walpole, in Bristol, had erected the same style of building, 1772, 
still standing in all its antique architectual curiosity. Alna and Wal- 
pole are all that are now left of these ancient Puritan places of worship ; 
and by the beneficence and consideration of the generation of sons of 
worthy sires, they are likely to be preserved as public memorial curi- 
osities, as well as monuments of the loyalty of the fathers to the faith 
and hopes of the (iospel as beacons of civil and religious New England 
polity. 

I must now turn to these fathers and founders of Alna. 

The fording places and mill privileges of the Sheepscot here had 
tended to attract and concentrate an enterprising community under 
the stimulus of milling industry. 

*SeeBi/lofKt-/Us. 



OLD ALNA MEETING-HOUSE. ^7 

•Ihe mfluence and activities of the industries here created an 
export trade at "Wiscasset Point" below, which became 'he «"« ot 
a lucrative and extensive business in West Ind.a commerce. IheCarle- 
o r Doles, the Pearsons, Jewetts, ..verills, Cooks. Donne Is and 
others, actively engaged in the building of "West Ind-amen, for the 
profits of lumber for freight out, and rum, trrolasses and sugar b ck 

The hamlet soon grew to the size and importance of an nrdepen- 
dent nntnicipality. deriving its name, I think, from Us b-.ness advan 
tage of being a travel passage and mill s„e a. the Sheepscot fords 
The Point below became a "commercial bee-hive," then so-called, as 
the center of an export and import business and commerce. 

POWNALBORO CONTR-^CrED. 

In ,,,,7 NViscasset Point was all that was left of the old town of 
Pownalboro and which had been created a Port of etrtry ; »^s very 
flourishing ; had one hundred and twenty houses. Its --8>';"; 
greater, i.r proportion to its si^e and populatton, than any Port tn 

Massachusetts.* . ,., 

Soon, however, sea-reprisals u. French captures on he ea of U est 
Indiamen, struck both Wiscasset Point and New Md ford he 

leading men of business were crushed by the robbenes and run. of ha 
lawless episode. Whole fan.ilies were bankrupted. But the plant of 
their religious and Puritan faith survived and flourished. 

CHURCH ORGANIZATION. 

To foster and fill the services Of this house of God, a church of 
five members, the .7th of September, 1796, had ^een orgamzed. Ihe 
origu^al officers of the church were Nathan Newell and Ezekiel Avenll. 
Deacon Jeremiah Pearson is a survivor. The AveriUs have been emi- 
nent m the religious history of the old church. Of this fami y. Ez - 
kiel Averill, whose body lies in the old burying ground at the Pom 
elow, Wiscasset, is recorded to have been of the body ^la.^ o 
(ieneral Washington; and James Averill was the father of Alber 
Avenll, Esq., of Chicago, whose munificence has essentially contributed 
to the rejuvenation of this old house of God. 

The next day after organization of the church. Rev Jonathan 
\\-ard a native of Plymouth, N. H., a graduate of Dartmoutl., was or- 
dained its first pa^r, anri^o^ontinuecHo,^^ Dunngjhis 

' *E/po,^- a singU year before ^n^bJ^S^^-^^or,^'' Geography. 



I 8 CENTENNIAL MEMORIAL SERVICES 

Pastorate the church had reached such eminence of relation to the in- 
terests of Evangelical Congregationalism that in 1809 its pastor called 
a meeting of the association to examine and license Johnathan Cogswell, a 
tutor in Bowdoin college, to minister in the service of the Payson Me- 
morial church in Portland then called the "New Society;" which fos- 
tered the organization of Evangelical beginnings in that city, and which 
has since been so famous and influential in the annals of Evangelical 
Congregationalism in Maine, if not in New England. — See Appendix 
A. Letter. 

Parson Ward long resisted the use of the "bass vial" in his choir 
as an unholy intrusion. Wearied out and over-ruled, he finally yielded, 
seeing the instrument in the choir, and as a punishment, bid them sing 
the 119 Psalm, and "fiddle it to their hearts content." 

It is current rumor that father Ward preached in town before his 
settlement, in the year 1795 i ^^^ resigned his pastorate there in 1818. 
Forty-one members were added during Ward's pastorate. Rev, 
Samuel Johnson, a native of Georgetown, Me., a graduate of Bowdoin, 
(class of 181 7,) succeeded to the pastorate, November 24, 1818, when 
he was here ordained and installed. He ofificiated till the 24th of May, 
1828; twenty-seven members to the church being the fruits of his 
service. Rev. Moses T. Harris, on the 28th of September, 1830; 
followed and continued to serve the church up to 1832 ; adding nine- 
teen to the church membership. Rev. Enos Merrill was his successor 
in November, 1832. During Merrill's ministry thirty were added ; and 
five, during pastoral interregnums, up to 1841, when my record closes. 
The religious fruit of the service in this house, to the date given, was 
an ingathering of one hundred and twenty-seven souls, now garnered 
for the most part in heaven, and perhaps, hovering over and rejoicing 
in this scene and memorial occasion. 

In addition to the worthy names of the fathers given, I must add 
that, of Josiah Stebbins, associate justice of the Court of Common Pleas. 

A. D. 181 I. NEW NAME. 

New Millford had become dissatisfied with its industrial title and 
petitioned the great and general Court at Boston for a new name, and 
was allowed to live as a corporate body, by the name of Alna, a name 
suggested by the luxuriant alder groves over-hanging the banks of 
Sheepscot river fords ; a name derived from the Latin word "A/nus — 
the Roman name for that shrub. 



19 OLD ALNA MEETING-HOUSE. 

It was regarded a quiet, romantic, out of the world place, dis- 
turbed only by the murmur of the river over its dams and the clatter 
of mills. It was a students' retreat. Judge Stebbins was charmed 
and here cast in his lot with other worthies of Puritan notions. 

Hon. John H. Sheppard, a contemporary, describes him thus : 
"He was a man of terse, nervous wit, upright, honorable and astute, 
kind hearted, benevolent, and an unflinching friend of the oppressed." 

"At the bar, he was wont to stand, his dark blue cloak around 
him, face pale with the lines of thought, his gray eye quick and flash- 
ing, with a well formed head, blossoming with age, brief in hand, 
pleading the Supreme Court to interpose its arm of mercy between the 
heart-broken client and the inexorable land proprietor." He finally 
secured the passage of the betterment act to cover the rights of the 
oppressed tenant, and saved Maine from menanced insurrection and 
blood shed. Such is the account of a contemporary and eye witness. 

What more shall I say to enhance public appreciation of this 
Puritanic relic? It is now rejuvenated for a century to come. Let it 
stand, a memento of the faith in and loyalty to God and New England ; 
and the principles of the fathers and founders of x'Mna ! 

CONCLUSION. 

Hallowed Shrine of the days of yore ! 

Lone relic of the past ; 
Memory fondly lingers o'er 

The scenes, within thee cast. 

The web of years, oh sacred place ! 

Which wraps thine oaken limbs, 
With century wrinkles on thy face. 

No trace of age bedims. 

The gray old trees which o'er thee stood. 

To guard thy rev'rend head, 
Tho' pledges of some fostering hand 

Now mouldering with the dead : 

Thine ancient aisles, — this sacred shrine ; 

AVhere all were wont to seek 
Theii father's God and word divine, 

To me they all do speak : 

Hark ! a voice ; it comes from shades of the dead, 
A voice I hear o'er their dark narrow bed : 
Ye sons of New England, forget not the worth, 
Despise not the right of your Puritan birth. 



APPENDIX. 



APPEx\DIX A. 
Papers of Rev. Sam'l Sewall. (Copy.) 

"New Millford, April 26, 1S09. 
Rev. Sir. I was in Hallowell Sabbath last. On Monday I 

attended the funeral of Mrs. 'rhurston. She died on Friday. She 
was, before her death, as I was informed, comfortable in her mind. 

Mr. Gillet mentioned to me that the New Society, in Portland, 
had applied to Mr. Cogswell, tutor at Brunswick, to supply them, and 
he had in consequence requested that our Lincoln Aasociation would 
approbate him. 

Mr. Gillet therefore proposed to meet next Tuesday at i o'clock at 
my house to attend to his request ; and wished me to inform you." 

Yours sincerely, 

Jona. \Vard. 
Rev. Samuel Sewall, 

Edgecomb. 



APPENDIX. 23 

APPENDIX B. 
1661. 

ROBERT GUTCH. 

At Bath, capital of Sagadahoc, earUest known as "Long Reach," a 
member of the first church of Salem, of the Puritan C:olony of Cape 
Ann, 1624, made an extensive purchase of the Indians and there 
settled. His name was Robert Gutch ; and he is reputed to have been 
a preacher of Righteousness to the pioneer population of these ancient 
domains till he met a tragic end by drowning, prior to 1667. The 
story is, that he and his wife, on horseback, attempted to ford a sand 
bar between Arrowsic and Parker's Island, when the horse lost his 
footing, fell into deep water, and Gutch and his wife were swept away. 
But a meeting-house had been erected on the north-west end of Arrow- 
sic Island, near the present bridge, long since gone to decay, its site 
now marked by a mound and clump of bushes. 
PURITAN USAGES. 

A PURITAN SABBATH PROCESSION. 

At about 10 A. M. the space before the meeting-house was filled 
with a respectful and expectant multitude. At the moment of service, 
the pastor issued from his house, his Bible and Manuscript under 
one arm, wife leaning on the other, flanked by his negro-man on his 
side and the wife by her negro-woman on her side, the little negroes 
distributed according to age and sex with their parents. Every other 
member of the pastor's family followed, according to age, in proces- 
sion. It was a Bay State scene. As soon as it appeared, the congre- 
gation as if moved by one spirit, made for the church door and before 
the procession was all in were in their places in the meeting-house. 
On the entrance of the minister, the congregation rose and stood until 
he reached the pulpit and entered it and his family was seated. 

CLOSE OF SERVICE. 

Congregation rose and stood until the minister and family had 
retired.* 

CHURCH OFFERINGS. 

Contribution to religious uses and for the poor, was a Sunday duty. 
Sermon ended, the people in the galleries came down, marched two 
* Thornton's Pulpit of the Revolution. 



2 4 APPENDIX. 

and two abreast up one aisle, down the other to the desk. Before it is 
a long pew where elders and deacons sit, one of whom with a money 
box in hand, received all offerings ; and into it the people cast their 
benefactions, from one to five shillings, according to the ability of the 
donor; and all was concluded with a Psalm. 

CHURCH ORDER. 

Three constables stood at the great doors of the meeting-house 
every Lord's day, at the end of the sermon morning and evening, to 
keep the doors and suffer no one to go out before service ended ; and 
all the boys in the town were made lo sit on the stairs, two persons 
being assigned to observe their conduct and present them as the law 
directs. 

ADMINISTRATION OF GOVERNMENT. 

Rule was enforced by a major vote. The formulary was, "You 
that are so minded hold up your hands ;" "You that are otherwise 
minded hold u]) yours." 

SERVICE OF PRAISE. 

Ordinarily, the minister, or some one by his appointment, read 
line after line and the people sang after such grave tunes as are in use. 

Benediction begins : "Blessed are all the}' that hear the word of 
God and keep it." 

PIUJRIM MEETING-HOUSE AT PLVMOUIH SUNDAY PROCESSION. 

1622. 

"The people gathered for worship at beat of a drum, each with 
his musket, in front of the Captian's door ; with cloaks on, and there 
range in order, three abreast, led by Sergeant. Behind comes the 
Governor in a long robe ; and on his right comes the preacher also in 
his cloak ; and on the left the captain, also cloaked, with his side arms 
and a small cane in hand. So they march in good order to the castel- 
lated meeting-house, where he sets himself down with his arms at hand." 

BradforiVs Iliitory of Piyiiionth. Xolc p. 126. 







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